Cleaning Up  

John 2:13-25 

And He made a scourge of cords, and drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen; and He poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables; and to those who were selling the doves He said, “Take these things away; stop making My Father’s house a place of business.” 

Jesus goes up to Jerusalem for his first of 3 Passovers during His three years of public ministry. The Passover was the greatest of the Jewish feasts.  It celebrated the deliverance of the Jews as slaves in Egypt and the passing over of the angel of death because of blood on the doorpost of their homes.  Every devout Jewish male over 12 years old would journey to Jerusalem every year for the feast.   

John’s narrative moves from a non-public act (water to wine) to an overt public act in the temple; cleansing the temple of animal merchants and money-changers.  

During Passover, the worshipers were to make animal sacrifices and pay taxes. It was burdensome to bring the animals on the long journey, so merchants took advantage of the situation by charging high prices for the animals. It was just like buying food at a professional sporting event is for us. The prices were jacked up.  The temple required the tax to be paid in a certain coinage that wasn’t common. Money changers, most likely in cahoots with the religious leaders, charged lofty exchange rates. Therefore, both parties (money changers and religious leaders) exploited weary travelers with excessive profit and exchange rates and it was all done in the temple under the cover of religious worship. 

Jesus appears on the public scene in this event after what theologians call the 400 years of silence.  The last prophet of God to speak God’s holy Word to the Jewish nation was 400 years before through Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament.  Jesus is now on the scene and He is about to speak loudly through His forceful actions.  

It’s interesting that Malachi prophecies of this event of purging the temple. It serves as a foreshadow of what Jesus will ultimately do at his second coming. This prophecy is pretty powerful. Malachi 3:1-3 says: 

“Behold, I am going to send my messenger and he will clear the way before me, (John the Baptist). And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple; and the messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight, behold, He is coming…for He is like a refiner’s fire…He will sit as a smelter and purifier of silver and He will purify the sons of Levi (the priests) and refine them like gold and silver, so that they may present to the Lord offerings in righteousness.” 

Although this event isn’t considered a miracle, it is an amazing show of authority and strength. The gentleness of Jesus was stirred into fast and furious action because the honor of true worship was at stake.  The prophecy of Malachi reveals that Jesus is all about purifying the worship of His people, beginning with the priests. The prophecy of purifying our worship is ultimately fulfilled in the Millennial kingdom after Jesus’s second coming so this story in John 2 serves as a foreshadow of that ultimate fulfillment and as instruction to all of us regarding worship. 

As we reflect on this lesson today, let us pray and consider the words of Jesus spoken to the woman at the well in John 4:23; “But an hour is coming and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers.”  Worship Jesus now in the quietness of this moment with your fears and self-interests surrendered to Him. Amen!